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When Nikolas Cruz started shooting last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, an armed deputy stationed at the Florida school rushed to the building.

A woman cries as she visits a makeshift memorial setup in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in memory of the 17 people that were killed on February 14, on February 21, 2018 in Parkland, Florida. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

But instead of going inside, the officer waited outside for four minutes as the gunman killed students and faculty inside, authorities said.

School resource officer Scot Peterson never went in, despite taking a position on the west side of Building 12, where most of the carnage happened, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday.

“I think he remained outside for upwards of four minutes,” Israel said Thursday in a news conference. The shooting, he said, lasted six minutes.

The sheriff came to the conclusion after watching surveillance video, talking to witnesses and getting a statement from Peterson.

During some of the calls, handled both in person and on the phone, deputies met with Cruz’s mother.

Two deputies have been placed on restricted duty pending an internal investigation on how they addressed the warnings, Israel said.

“In two of these cases, after being briefed by internal affairs, I’ve restricted two of our deputies while we delve further into this, to take statements and make a decision whether or not they could have done more or should have done more,” Israel said.

Jeff Bell, president of the Broward County Sheriff’s Deputies Association, said his union is representing the two officers, and doesn’t foresee any major problems with their handling of the calls.

He declined to discuss the particulars of the case, saying the investigation will focus on details of the calls to see what was reported and how it was followed up from there.

Two calls under review

The two cases under review are among 23 calls made to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office in the past decade.

One call is from February 5, 2016 and the second was on November 30 last year.

In the 2016 case, officers received “third hand information” from a neighbor’s son that Cruz planned to “shoot up” an unknown school. There was a picture of a “juvenile with guns” on Instagram, according to police records.

In that case, a deputy responded and determined Cruz had knives and a BB gun. The information was forwarded to a school resource officer, police records show. It’s unclear whether it was Peterson. That case is listed as under internal affairs investigation.

In last year’s incident, a caller warned in November that Cruz was collecting guns and knives, and wanted to join the Army. The caller said Cruz is suicidal and could be a “school shooter in the making,” according to police records.

The report says that at the time, officers did not write a report on the tip. Cruz was no longer living at the listed Parkland address and lived in Lake Worth, Florida, according to police records. The deputy referred the caller to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.

That case is also listed as being under internal affairs investigation. The 21 other calls are listed as “no policy violation apparent.”

More questions on response

More than a week after Cruz roamed the halls armed with an AR-15 style rifle, shooting and killing, questions remain on whether law enforcement agencies could have done anything to prevent the massacre.

When gunfire broke out, Israel said, Peterson was in a different building, helping resolve an unidentified issue with another student.

He rushed to Building 12, but did not go inside.

“I think he (Peterson) got on his radio at a point and time and he took up a position where it looked like he could see the western most entry into the building and never went in,” Israel said.

Records show Peterson is a decorated officer who is respected by his peers. In 2014, he was awarded Parkland’s school resource officer of the year while still stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.